Saturday, June 13, 2009

Smartphones for Dyslexics - my decision

Thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions and advice on moving towards better time management through technology. (My dyslexia gives me a rather fluid and vague grasp of the flow of time - which tends to get me into interesting situations occasionally). I have listened to what you've told me. I've also gone shopping and looked at different models of netbook and smartphone. And prices, of course.



Ivory kindly let me play around with her iPhone on Thursday - which has given me more of an idea about how I might use one.

Yesterday I came to a decision. I'm going to shift a load of my organizational stuff onto Google calendar, google mail etc. But I am going to hold back from buying any gadgets for a few months. (I am having a fairly intensive period of writing during the next 6 months, so my organizational load will be limited). Then, when the next google phone comes out, I will probably go for that. Presumably it will be called the G2. By that time, I'll probably be renewing my laptop as well - and will go for one of the long battery life Samsung netbooks.

Why the Google phone rather than the iPhone? Simply because of their open-source policy. Whilst I have complained about Google's attitude in trampling over copyright holder's rights, I am perfectly happy for them to release their own intellectual property to the creative commons.

Apple's more-or-less opposite approach of centralisation and secrecy seems less wholesome and, however beautiful the iPhone is, I feel uncomfortable with it.


So there we go - thanks again for the input.

6 comments:

Mosher said...

Hey, Rod. I don't know if anyone mentioned but on Google Calendar you can get it to SMS you a reminder for an upcoming event - and it's free. I've found this really useful for when you can't get online in any shape or form - even with a 3G phone, there are times when the signal you get is too low for that to work but still you can get a reminder through.

As for netbooks, I just bought a Eee1000HE. It was delivered on Wednesday and I've only just got back to my folks' to open the box. Over *9 hours* battery life on low-use, over 5 watching hi-def videos. Ideal for my travelling. The only compromise is a lack of CD-R for backing up my photos, but overall I reckon it's worth it. Only costs a couple of dollars at most cybercafe's these days.

It even comes with XP Home rather than Vista, and has 160Gb of hard drive so I can easily repartition and whack Ubuntu on there as well. Superb.

There goes my weekend...

Rod Duncan said...

Yeah. I was thinking of the Eee PCs as well.

Sounds like you are in for a fun weekend. I'd be interested to hear what life you get from the battery - between charges, that is.

Mosher said...

I'll be giving it some "real world" testing over the next week or so. And likely bragging (or complaining) about it on my blog.

Next task will be to make it look knackered so nobody wants to steal it... (travel tip, there!)

Rod Duncan said...

Don't they sell a cosmetically distressed version? It's only a matter of time.

Mosher said...

Sadly not - just "shiny black" and "shiny white". I'll soon sort that...

There are manufacturers which offer customised casings, but usually only as far as popping a picture on it rather than "pre-aging" it! But you're right... there's a niche there.

Pam said...

Good to see you've made a decision. I tend to stall and procrastinate so much, that the tech I want is no longer current.

Probably just as well, as I admittedly not very tech savvy at all.

Followers